If you are dealing with multiple loans and servicers, consolidation can simplify repayment by providing one loan, one servicer, and one payment.

Do You Need a Lower Monthly Payment?

One of the greatest benefits to consolidation is a single monthly payment with a required monthly payment that is less than the 10-year Standard payment amount. This is possible because consolidating stretches the original 10-year repayment term up to 30 years. However, this does not mean you have to take 30 years to pay off your loan. You can choose to pay the loan off early without any penalties, and the sooner you pay off your loan, the less the loan will cost overall.

Consolidating with Direct Loans may be necessary to make some federal loans eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). Not all loans need to be consolidated in order to be eligible. To review your loan portfolio, login to the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) or contact your servicer(s).

Do You Have Private and Federal Student Loans?

If you are finding it difficult to repay both your private and federal loans, consolidation may offer an advantageous repayment strategy.

After consolidating your federal loans and obtaining a single servicer, you can request a Mandatory Medical Residency Forbearance to postpone payments on all of your federal loans during residency. Then, while your federal loan payment is postponed, aggressively focus repayment on your private loan debt.

Are You Considering the Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE), Pay As You Earn (PAYE)*, or the Income-Based Repayment (IBR) Plan?

For federal loans to be eligible for REPAYE, PAYE, or IBR, they must be loans from the Direct Loan program. Federal loans that do not have the word “Direct” in their name would need to be consolidated in order to qualify for these plans.

*There are additional requirements to qualify for the PAYE repayment plan. You must be a “new borrower” as of October 1, 2007, and you must have received a Direct Loan disbursement on or after October 1, 2011. Contact your servicer for detailed information about your eligibility.

Complete a consolidation application or learn more about the consolidation process at www.studentloans.gov.

The Association of American Medical Colleges is a not-for-profit association dedicated to transforming health care through innovative medical education, cutting-edge patient care, and groundbreaking medical research. Its members are all 151 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, including 51 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and more than 80 academic societies. Through these institutions and organizations, the AAMC serves the leaders of America’s medical schools and teaching hospitals and their more than 173,000 full-time faculty members, 89,000 medical students, 129,000 resident physicians, and more than 60,000 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the biomedical sciences.